


There's a Seat Here Along Side Me

by joyce



Category: Toby Daye - Seanan McGuire
Genre: F/M, Family, Gen, Squirefic, Treat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-19
Updated: 2012-12-19
Packaged: 2017-11-21 14:39:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,340
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/598890
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/joyce/pseuds/joyce
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Toby, Tybalt, Raj, Toby, and driving lessons.</p>
            </blockquote>





	There's a Seat Here Along Side Me

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Alashandra](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alashandra/gifts).



> And then there was some accidental squirefic. Well, of a sort.
> 
> This slips the canon just a bit - Quentin drives at the beginning of _Ashes_ , and there would be no Tybalt/Toby backrubs until the end of _Ashes_ \- but the idea gave me the giggles, and so I hope you'll permit the story. :)

“Do we really have to do this?” Quentin was not a happy camper. He’d been arguing with me in the car for the last half an hour, and for several days before that.

“What happened to ‘You are my knight and I go where you go and your problems are my problems and I do as you ask, sir?’ ” My tone was joking, but I was genuinely puzzled at his reluctance. Weren’t teenagers supposed to want to learn to drive? Of course, Quentin wasn’t exactly a typical teenager.

Quentin, Raj, Tybalt, and I were standing next to my car in an otherwise empty high school parking lot on the outskirts of San Francisco. I had chosen a school that was some ways from our house, just in case things went horribly wrong. Not that I would tell Quentin that.

“I’m learning to be a knight. Shouldn’t I be picking heraldic colors or swinging a sword or working on my dancing skills or … something?” Quentin’s voice was taking on a note of desperation. 

I took a deep breath, straightened my posture, and did my best imitation of our liege’s booming, rolling voice. “You are to learn about the mortal world, young padawan.” We’d been watching the Star Wars movies for our Friday night movie nights, and I couldn’t resist throwing that last in. Resuming my normal voice, I asked “Really? What’s the big deal here? Do you want to have to take BART forever?”

“BART’s not so bad. I read or play games on my phone. It’s not like I get much time to myself.” Quentin had started to look down at the ground and scuff his feet.

I took a swallow of my coffee – Quentin had gotten me a really nice travel mug recently, something about military grade and it being invincible, hah – and rubbed my temples; I was threatening to develop the kind of headache that I hadn’t had nearly as often recently, since my mother had made magic burn (mostly) a thing of my past.

I turned to focus on Quentin. “Okay, spill it.” Behind me, I heard Raj snicker, than an “Ow!” as Tybalt cuffed him upside the head.

“You’re next,” observed Tybalt mildly. 

“What? No. You can’t mean that.” 

“Are you questioning me, prince?”

Normally Tybalt would called Raj "nephew", but his voice had taken on a warning tone.

“Of course not, my king.” Raj's voice was deferential, and he took on a thoughtful look as he tried to figure out how to talk his way out of this one. “But we’re cats! We don’t need to drive. You don’t even like to ride in cars.”

That last was not untrue; Tybalt had spent the entire ride to the school in cat form, resolutely grooming and not looking out the windows. When you could carry yourself through shadows, I suppose you couldn't be blamed for not wanting to take any other form of transit.

“Nonetheless, in this modern world, we all must have some modern skills. You will learn to drive, Raj.”

“Is that why May and Jazz are trying to teach Toby how to cook?” Quentin piped up. I had known how to cook once upon a life. Well, I’d sort of known; I’d managed, at least. But that had been a long time ago and that knowledge had been replaced with more useful skills, like how to use a sword and prevent poisoning, assassinations, and wars.

“Something like that. Wait. Trying?!” I turned back to Quentin. “Seriously, don’t change the subject. What is the problem here?”

Quentin looked down at his feet, and I was reminded of just how young he was, even if his latest growth spurt had left him taller than me. “I could kill someone with that thing,” he finally muttered.

“For Oberon’s sake, you were cheerfully learning how to slice people in half last night!”

“That’s different. Etienne knows that I’m coming at him with a sword. The poor mortals in other cars don’t.”

“Which is why we’re starting with a very empty parking lot.”

“Can’t I cast a don’t look here on us, at least?”

“No.” We all had on human illusions, and to anyone looking at us, we’d appear to be more or less what we were – a couple of adults and their teenage nephews out for a late afternoon driving lesson. There was no reason to hide; if Quentin was going to learn to deal with the mortal world, part of that lesson was learning to appear normal in the mortal world. “Quentin. I am your knight, and I order you to get into the car. On the driver’s side. And don’t touch the radio.”

As he did so, I muttered to Raj and Tybalt, “You two might want to get out of the way.” Tybalt looked amused: “We’re cats. We can manage quickly enough if we need to.” “It’s your funeral.”

“I heard that!” called Quentin. I choked back a laugh and got in the car myself.

I walked Quentin through getting the seat adjusted and getting the car turned on, glad that I drove an automatic. “So, the one of the right is the gas.”  
“The what?”

“It makes the car go.”

“Okay.”

“And the one on the left is the brake. It makes the car stop.”

“Okay.”

“So, take off the parking break there – yea, that’s it, and put it into drive – no, that’s reverse – put it into drive, and slowly, slowly, push on the gas.”

We rolled forward at a snail’s pace, but we did roll forward. “I’m… driving?” Quentin managed to look scared and awed at the same time.

“You are. Now let’s pick it up over two miles per hour, shall we.”

“Okay!” He paused. “How do I tell how fast I’m going, again?”

“Maeve’s tits, I did forget to explain the display, didn’t I? Hit the brakes.” We began to roll forward much, much faster. “The brakes, Quentin. Brakes! The ONE ON THE LEFT.”

Finally, we came to a stop, though Quentin was looking slightly more shaken than he had started out, and I explained the dials and displays before we tried again. The rest of the lesson was uneventful, with Raj catching on marginally faster than Quentin (something he wouldn’t end up letting Quentin forget for the next month, until Raj came within inches of plowing into a tree and abruptly stopped teasing Quentin.)

\--

Later on, at home, things were peaceful (which we deserved, after the last year or so. Or the last ever, really.) The boys were playing some kind of sports themed game on the X-Box that Jazz had appeared with one day a couple of weeks ago; I hadn’t known that her shop was doing that well, but I also didn’t ask questions. Everyone was munching on pizza – I’d decided that after living through driving lessons for Raj and Quentin, we all needed a treat, including May and Jazz, who were tangled up on one of the couches, watching the boys play and not saying much. Tybalt was working the knots out of my shoulders as I sat on the floor against his legs, resulting in my moaning softly. Finally, Quentin glanced over at us. “Hey, you two. Get a room.”

“That sounds like a fantastic idea.” Tybalt wrapped his arms around me and started to nuzzle my neck.

Raj looked seriously embarrassed, as he often did around us, and started to blush a deep red. “No, seriously. Guys. Please. Get a room.”

I laughed and worked my way out from under Tybalt. “In a few minutes. I need another piece of pizza.”

Tybalt sat up. “Are you saying I’m second to… pizza?”

“Pizza gets cold. You don’t.”

May groaned and hefted a throw pillow at us (where had all these pillows come from?) I grinned and leaned back onto Tybalt’s legs. Things were peaceful, which meant that someone was going to get kidnapped or war was going to break out soon, but for the moment, I had family – something I hadn’t thought I’d have again.


End file.
